Abstract
Randa Abdel-Fattah’s 2006 novel, Does My Head Look Big in This?, is about a teenage Australian Muslim protagonist who voluntarily chooses to wear the hijab to her elite private school in Melbourne, and the personal and social challenges that she faces after making this decision. In this paper, I suggest that the novel portrays the action of wearing the hijab as mainly apolitical, and that it is instead a spiritual and religious act which demonstrates aspects of the hijab as empowering to an individual’s life. This subverts the stereotypical understanding of the hijab, particularly by the West, as either a tool of control and subjugation of Muslim women, or as a stand against Western society and ideology. By using Saba Mahmood’s (2005) study of Muslim women piety, which argues that Islam and its practices can be used as a tool for women’s empowerment, particularly for achieving self-improvement and self-actualization, this paper pays attention to the representation of the hijab in the novel. The decision to wear the hijab opens a path for the protagonist to become more adherent to her religion, as well as improving her attributes and individuality as a whole. This creates a wholesome young woman who is not only committed to her religion, but is also mindful of her character. DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2016-1603-08
Highlights
In a writing career which began in 2006, Australian writer, Randa Abdel-Fattah has published ten books, most of which are aimed at children or young adult readers.i Her first novel, Does My Head Look Big in This? which is at the centre of this paper, narrates the implications of sixteen-year-old Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakim, an Australian-Palestinian girl’s decision to wear the hijab to the MacCleans Grammar School, an elite private school in Melbourne
Following these incidents, the Muslim community in Australia find themselves in the spotlight, women in hijab as their dress code renders them visible representatives of Islam and Muslims (Hussein, 2010, p. 159; Kampmark, 2003, p. 93)
As portrayed in the novel, Muslim women who wear the hijab in Australia are viewed as different and potentially dangerous, and as a symbol of patriarchal oppression which is said to be prevalent in Islamic teachings
Summary
In a writing career which began in 2006, Australian writer, Randa Abdel-Fattah has published ten books, most of which are aimed at children or young adult readers.i Her first novel, Does My Head Look Big in This? which is at the centre of this paper, narrates the implications of sixteen-year-old Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakim, an Australian-Palestinian girl’s decision to wear the hijab (head scarf) to the MacCleans Grammar School, an elite private school in Melbourne. They happened outside Australian soil, these events, the Bali bombings which killed 88 Australians holiday-makers, traumatized the general public This fear intensified when threats were visible within the country with an increase of terrorist activities including, most prominently, the threat posed by the Benbrika group, led by Algerian-born Abdel Nacer Benbrika who was planning to attack several popular places around Sydney and Melbourne, with the biggest attack aimed at the 90,000 seats Australian Football League Stadium in Melbourne This paper pays attention to the teenage protagonist’s action of wearing the hijab, which is discussed through the concept of Muslim women agency as explored by Saba Mahmood in her book, The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject The fact that she comes up with this decision on her own suggests the personal ability to make an informed decision. In the last section of the paper, I discuss how the hijab functions in a social environment, in helping to refine the protagonist’s conduct in social spaces, improving her personhood
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